Members of the Ontario (Canada) film industry rally to pressure the government to increase film subsidies. Film production has declined dramatically in the province in the past two years. “My income is down to about a quarter of what it was last year, and I’ve seen it plummeting in the last three years. I’m one of the lucky ones, you know? There are actors I know who are losing their homes, (and) there are families breaking up.”
Tag: 12.02.04
Canadian Attacks Koons Sculpture In Berlin
“Istvan Kantor, best known as the man who was banned from the National Gallery of Canada in the 1990s for tossing a vial of his own blood on the walls, has turned up in Berlin where he sprayed more of his bodily fluids at a statue of Michael Jackson yesterday. Also known as Monty Cantsin, Kantor was banned from the Art Gallery of Ontario for vomiting on a painting in 1996. Six months later he repeated the performance at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. At the time he said he was protesting the ‘oppressively trite and painfully banal’ nature of the works in question.”
China’s Third Wave Art
“In the past 25 years, Chinese artists have followed and studied the art of Europe, America and Asia’s developed countries. There has been scant contemporary Chinese art with its own distinctive language and aesthetic value that does not defer to the expectations of the established art circuit.” Now, a third wave of Chinese artists is wrking with a language that is distinctly Chinese…
A Theatre In Every Pot
A major new initiative in the UK aims to make sure there’s an ensemble acting company in every major town. “The quality of output in Britain is simply not as good as elsewhere. I’ve seen nothing in the UK over the last ten years to rival the standard of theatre I’ve seen in Krakow and St Petersburg. The object for actors nowadays is to go to drama school and get into EastEnders and if we don’t do something the industry will get even more mediocre.”
Arts Transformation In South Africa Has Failed
Attempts to transform South Africa’s culture since apartheid have failed, says the country’s culture minister. “These problems were attributed to the legacy left by apartheid plus a skills shortage. Dismantling the legacy of apartheid had taken a lot of time and energy.”
Disney In The Buff
Keepers of LA’s Disney Hall are considering dulling the finish of the exterior after a study finds that reflection of the sun heats nearby apartments and poses a hazard to traffic. Gehry is said to agree to the changes.
Lost Truman Capote Novel Found
An unpublished first novel by Truman Capote, long thought lost, has been found in a box of photographs and documents abandoned by the author in 1966.
Did Iris Murdoch Have Alzheimer’s?
A scientist has analyzed Iris Murdoch’s later work and suspects that she may have been suffering from Alzheimer’s. The analysis “found that her vocabulary had dwindled and her language become simpler. Alzheimer’s is difficult to establish with certainty until after death, but the evidence was there in her last work, diagnosed by computer-based analysis of word use, Dr Peter Garrard reports in the December issue of the journal Brain.”
Proof That Readers Don’t Pay Attention To Critics
Take a look at lists of critics’ choices for top recordings of the year, then look at what music sold best. Guess what? They don’t match. “The only thing people who buy records and those who write about them agree on, then, is an album whose pastel wistfulness just begs for the spine-stiffening effect of a stint in the marines. This prompts the disheartening thought that the only listeners whose habits rock journalists have any influence over are in fact other rock journalists.”
Cambridge Considers Getting Out Of Architecture
Cambridge University is considering closing down its architecture school. “The prospect of our leading research university closing its only department that has a direct impact on the quality of our built environment is worrying and may indicate deeper attitudes and realities that are of equal concern.”